Today in a bipartisan vote, the Oregon House of Representatives passed HB 4005 to make providing care more economically feasible for family child care providers. The bill is part of a historic $100 million child care package that is moving through the 2022 legislative session.

HB 4005 addresses an unfair disparity in payments to providers servicing low-income families who receive Employment Related Day Care subsidies. It will increase those payments to 90% of market-rate by July, 2022. The current payment is 75% of the market rate. An estimated 70% of the more than 2,100 family child care providers represented by Oregon AFSCME serve ERDC families.

“Too many family child care providers in our communities are barely scraping by after pandemic income loss and skyrocketing health care costs,” says Autumn David, President of Child Care Providers Together, AFSCME Local 132. Members of her union are the backbone of Oregon’s child care system — the majority of which are women and BIPOC-owned small businesses across our state.  “HB 4005 is a much needed and much-welcomed increase in payments to providers that will help keep them in business serving their communities.”

Oregon AFSCME represents more than 2,100 family child care providers around the state as well as union parents who are struggling to find local, culturally relevant, high-quality child care, especially those who work in 24/7 worksites such as the Oregon State Hospital or correctional facilities. The 2022 Child Care Investment Package is designed to help increase the availability of care by helping current providers stay open and expand and help new providers launch their businesses.

HB 4005 will next go to a full vote of the Oregon Senate. The rest of the package is working its way through the budget process.

Oregon AFSCME believes in economic and social justice for all Oregon workers and their families. Our mission is to empower and unite workers to create change in their workplaces and communities.